An (unwanted) start of darkness
by Econotastic
Summary: 16th birthdays are supposed to be fun and special occasions that celebrates a girl's coming of age in the world. However for Artemis Crock, while it certainly is special in it's own way, it is nothing like she hoped it would be. And unfortunately now nothing else in her life is going like she hoped it would.
1. Chapter 1

Author Note: So this is my first story. I hope you all enjoy the story and I keep the characters believable. Also a big thank you to inspibrain101 for being my beta reader.

April 14

It was a warm spring day in suburbia. The sun shone bright in the clear blue sky and residents went about their day like every other day. In one house however, where its residents were going about their usual routine, something very different was about to happen.

Two of them were in the kitchen seated at the table one reading the paper and the other listening to the radio. And while their activities were normal enough the two were not. Listening to the radio was a well-built and muscular man with short cropped blonde hair eating toast as a sports commentator talked about up-coming games. Opposite him was an athletic looking woman with shoulder length dark hair sipped coffee as she read the lifestyle section of the paper.

To their neighbours they were Mr. and Mrs. Westen. In reality they were Sportsmaster and Tigress wanted supervillians hiding out as regular civilians. Their reason for this was their daughter Artemis who was had finally woken up upstairs and started down the stairs in the front hall.

For today was her birthday. And it was not just any ordinary birthday either. Today was Artemis's 16th and the two were waiting to give her presents they were sure she would enjoy.

Both watched as a slim teenage girl walked down the hall bared footed dressed in sweat pants and a tee shirt. Her messy dark hair partially covered her face as she stopped in the kitchen doorway. Obscured by her hair her eyes went from her father to mother and a worried frown creased her freckled face as she noted the anticipation on her parent's faces.

Crap, was her first thought, what did I forget? Quickly she tried to remember what could be happening today. Strategy and Scheming school? No, she had finished that two months ago. Combat training or Jean Masque private school? Both were supposed to have been done last month. And so was everything else she could think of. She had finished everything her parents had made her do.

Then the frown turned into a look of horror as two ideas hit her. A surprise exam for one or even all of the training or educational programs she had done. Or even worse she had failed one of them somehow and had to repeat one of them.

"Happy birthday honey!" and immediately her mind went blank and mouth hung open as she stared at her parents in disbelief. Even as her mom came over and hugged her Artemis stood there unsure if she was dreaming this.

As far as birthdays went her parents had never really made an effort for them. For most all she had received was card from whichever one had remembered containing money. They showed more affection towards her during the yearly vacation even if she had to wear that stupid costume with her clothes. So this from both her parents left her more stunned than when Mad Hatter had been a guest instructor for the Personal and Lair Defense Necessities course and had hit the class with a psychic attack.

Artemis reacted in a similar matter though, shaking her head and clearing her mind by reciting the Ultra-Humanite's four parts of a successful plan, Control, Preparation, Power and Drive. After repeating it once more she felt better until she saw she dad open the fridge and take a cake out while her mom took two presents out of the cupboards, one with red wrapping paper the other with blue.

Three more recitals later and a minute of one of Deathstroke's breathing control exercises as her dad put candles in the cake left Artemis feeling calm as well as sure that she wasn't dreaming.

Feeling rather numb Artemis walked over to the table just as her dad finished lighting the candles and placed it on the table in front of her. The whole situation just felt so unnatural. It was almost like she was ten again. Back then she still hoped that she might get to have normal childhood and life like her friends at Jean Masque.

"Well don't just stand there with your mouth open honey," said her mom setting the presents on the table. "Make a wish and blow out the candles. Then you can open your presents while we cut the cake."

After a moment's hesitation about what to wish for she knew as she remembered what her ten year self had wished for back in the Jean Masque dormitories where her friends had thrown her a small party. A normal life, a normal life where I can go shopping, hang out friends and go to college or university. And with that thought in mind Artemis took a breath and blew out the candles as her parents looked on with smiles.

The numb feeling was replaced by a warm happy feeling in her chest as her mom passed her the presents and walked over to the cupboards to get plates, forks and a knife. Tearing the paper off the red one and opening the box underneath she gasped in excitement as she found a key inside. A car or maybe motorcycle or even a scooter thought Artemis as a smile lite up her face. Truthfully she didn't care which it was since she had always wanted her own vehicle instead of having to get rides everywhere from her parents or take the bus. Artemis's mood though went from terrific to amazing though as she opened the blue one and found a Xisa credit card inside. A card credit card thought Artemis with a squeal of delight.

Best birthday ever thought Artemis as she accepted a slice of cake and sat down to start eating.

"Thank you, so mush." said Artemis between forkfuls of cake.

"Thanks pumpkin," replied her dad as he started eating. "We thought you would like taking the first real steps to becoming a supervillian."

"Wait what?" asked Artemis fork paused in front of her mouth as look of confusion appeared on her face and the warmth in her chest was started to drain away. It was silent as her parents glanced at each other then her mom grabbed the boxes and looked inside.

"Umm honey where are the notes explaining what each gift is?"

"Oh err, was I supposed to put them in?" her dad looked over at her mom and coughed embarrassed. "I thought you going to do it when you were wrapping them."

The withering look her mom shot back silenced him before she turned to look at Artemis. "Well honey you see what your father said is true. They are to help you be a supervillian. The key is for a motel with a small lair underneath it. And the credit card is actually for the Vile Vault bank so you can buy you costume, equipment and hire henchmen."

"Ah." Was all Artemis said as she stared down at her almost finished cake. There was more she wanted to say to her parents. Things like of course it's for being a supervillain, why would it be for anything else? Or why she had to be a supervillain? Just because she was the daughter of two didn't mean she wanted to be one.

But she didn't. Because she was tired of trying to get them to understand them she wanted to do almost anything else than be a supervillain. And because it was her birthday and her parents were actually celebrating it with her.

So why make a big about it? Thought Artemis looking up from the cake with the fake smile she had perfected back in acting class. She agreed with whatever her mom had finished explaining about the presents before taking another bite of cake as her parents both started smiling again. Might as well make the best of the situation she thought as her dad started talking about an upcoming villain convention where she could get everything she was going to need for her lair and band of henchmen.

After all even attention for the reasons she didn't want was better than none right?


	2. Chapter 2

April 15

"Dad, for the last time I am not going to call myself The Ringer or Power Play. Or any other sports related name," said Artemis giving him an irritated look from the backseat of the car before turning to give her mother one as well. "And same for any animal names too, mom. If I'm going to be a villain I am going to pick my own name. And I'll do it without any advice."

Artemis did a quick reathing exercise as she calmed herself down from the latest barrage of 'suggestions' her parents had for her regarding being a supervillain. They had been at it since they had taken her to see the motel, which was a dump, and lair underneath it yesterday. And now as they took her to get a costume it was really getting on her nerves.

She had been hoping they would give her some time to think about it after her birthday. And instead she got the complete opposite. She barely had a moment's peace since then as they constantly asked her about things like her supervillain name or if she was going to have a theme.

Artemis had originally been happy at all the attention her parents had been giving her on her birthday. Now however she wanted it stop or at least have a break from it.

She sighed in relief as they pulled into the small parking lot of the tailor shop. She recognized the place from when she had been younger and her parents had taken her with them to get their costume replaced or repaired if they didn't have the time to do it themselves between schemes.

City View Tailoring read the sign above the door as she headed for once she was out of the car. From the outside it looked like a small simple clothing shop. In reality it was a front for the Stegginson Costume and Clothing Company a criminal business that supplied villains who for whatever reason couldn't make their own costumes. It was one of many organizations that existed to supply villains with what they needed to commit crimes.

Inside was what a person would expect to find in a tailor shop. Racks of clothing and different coloured material filled the store with manikins posed here and there. Two men wearing dress shirts and ties greeted them as they entered.

"I was just hoping for a quick fitting and billing for a surprise occasion." said Artemis remembering the code phrase from her younger visits to the store.

The two men exchanged a glance before the one nearest the cash register spoke. "May I see your credit card then please?"

She gave him her card and watched as he scanned it before handing it back to her. "Your in luck we happen to have time to fit you in."

"Paul will show you to the fitting room." added the man gesturing to the other man.

Nodding she and her parents followed the man to the back wall that was covered in mirrors. There he motioned and whispered something Artemis couldn't make out then stepped into the nearest mirror like it wasn't even there. Artemis followed a moment later, again remembering back to when she was six and had run through immediately after the tailor had gone through and collided with the man.

Stepping through herself, Artemis looked about the room and found it hadn't change since her last visit seven years ago. Much like the public part of the store except that now the manikins wore full body costumes and the materials on the racks included spandex, leather, latex, chainmail and other much tougher materials.

She stepped forward to give her parents space to enter and saw the tailor take a clipboard off of a nearby rack. He turned towards her as he tapped a pen against the clipboard that he had produced from somewhere. "Now how may I help to you today?"

"I would like to have a costume made for me," Said Artemis as the man checked something on the clipboard. "I would a spandex shirt, ants and a mask that fully covers the head. For the colour I would like dark blue with silver swirling lines on the mask, chest and legs of it."

The tailor was quiet as he wrote on the clipboard before looking up to give her a questioning look. "Would like you like multiple copies of it made as well in case of damage?"

"Oh umm, sure. Just two extra should be good."

"Excellent," replied the tailor as he finished writing on the clipboard. Then setting it down on a nearby by rack he pulled a measuring tape of his pocket. "Now please stand still as I take your measurements for the costume."

Half an hour and some more questions about her costume later they left the shop with a receipt for her costumes that would be ready in two days. Once they got back in the car though the continuous advice and ideas, now about weapons and other equipment, started back up they headed to the next store. It's going to be a long day thought Artemis as she turned on her mp3 while her parents started over whether grappling hooks were better than climbing spikes for scaling buildings.

That thought turned out to be very true as the day wore on. They went to three more stores after Stegginson, each of which was a front for another criminal business. First was Quick Louie's which specialized in gear for breaking into all kinds of places, taking care of security and then getting away. After that was Terror Tech Solutions that as the name suggested had lasers, robots ranging from a two inches tall to three stories, flying tanks and more. And their final stop was Dark Pulse a magic emporium with a vast selection of items and artefacts such as a fire elemental Molotov or an enchanted axe that could cut through a foot of solid steel.

Unfortunately Artemis didn't actually buy any of those items. In fact, she could barely even afford to buy anything remotely as cool as an enchanted axe or a laser. No, what she ended up buying was what Strategy and Scheming considered to be the essentials for every villain.

The essentials being: a long range weapon, a weapon for close combat which could be omitted if you were good enough at hand to hand, smoke and flash bombs for escaping, explosives, something to carry most of them in and enough of each to last a villain several months.

Artemis bought a compact crossbow along with several types of ammo for it, gloves, boots, a utility belt, plenty of knives, explosives, smoke and flash bombs and a fire elemental Molotov. She hadn't been able to help herself with the Molotov since you could got to command the fire elemental once it was released and hey, she wanted at least one cool thing in her arsenal.

That did it for shopping as they headed home, the car weighed down slightly by the eight pound bags of gear she bought to make sure she had enough. Today was pretty good thought Artemis with a small smile as she looked at her mom and dad arguing about what to have for dinner. Sure she would have preferred it without all the 'advice' but that was life. She turned the volume up on her mp3 and looked out the window at the people on the sidewalk going about their ordinary lives. Ordinary lives, the thought stuck with her as she felt a pang of sadness in her chest. That was something she was giving up.

Quickly she pushed the thought away. She didn't want to go there right now. That was something to think about later, exactly when she didn't know but later.

Right now she was happy and that was all she wanted think about.


	3. Chapter 3

April 19

Artemis swore under her breath for maybe the hundredth time that day as she thought about why she was standing on a roof top at night. The reason why was that she had messed up over the past several days. And how had she messed up? Simply by not paying attention to how much she was spending.

Plus it wasn't even that she had suddenly been hit with a bunch of unforeseeable problems over the past several days. The days in question had in fact been quite good and completely free of anything such things. She had chosen her supervillain name, Ventus, which was Latin for wind and she felt it sort went with her actual name Artemis as an archer or in this case crossbow woman. Got a fake driver's license and motorcycle, got her costumes, moved into the lair, sparred with her parents and signed up for the villain convention where she could introduce herself to the community and hire some henchmen.

Then Artemis had checked her account balance and estimating the costs of hiring henchmen, electricity, water, telephone and Internet for the motel and food she discovered she was only going to have enough for one of them.

Which, of course lead back to why she was standing on a roof top in the middle of the night. The obvious answer to her problems was more money. Of course getting the amount of money she needed was a problem itself since she didn't have the time to properly plan any kind of robbery. Even going after an armoured car was out of the question since you needed to either know its pick up schedule or you might find it was empty when you attacked.

So that left with her three options that didn't depend on her getting in and out with enough money or valuables before the police and/or a super hero showed up. Of the three though Artemis only really considered the one since she didn't want to take out a loan of any kind with one of the banks and she didn't want to ask her parent's since they seemed so proud of her over the last few days. And that left contacting an information broker, like the Calculator but not actually him as his fee was too high for Artemis, to find out what other villains or criminals were looking for help with their schemes.

And of the many people looking for help she chose a fellow named Jay Fargate, an up and coming criminal according to the broker, with his gang's robbery of a jewelry store. Her part in the robbery would be to stop any police or super heroes from interfering with the robbery as they cleaned out the store and got away. She told the broker yes and an hour later received a call from Fargate himself telling her where to meet him to go over the plan.

That had been yesterday after she had ridden on her new motorcycle for half a day to get to him. They had gone over the plan and she got half her payment up front, just as Strategy and Scheming recommended when doing mercenary work. Which, after waiting and preparing for nightfall, brought her to the present and she swore again at how irritated she was with herself at over spending on gear and furniture for her lair.

"Come on how long does it take to rob a place when you don't have to worry about alarms?" mumbled Artemis in full costume and gear from the roof of a nearby Laundromat. The radio headset under her mask remained silent as she waited for Fargate to tell that they had finished and were leaving. Also it turned out the reason Fargate was an 'up and comer' was because he committed crimes using an EMP cannon, likely from Terror Tech, that knocked all electronics in range so he was rarely bothered by the police since they didn't even he robbing a place until someone called it in the next day.

They were lucky it was a quiet night or the police might have been called by someone on the street who happened to look into the dark store and saw people with flashlights smashing display cases. Artemis sighed and was about to take out her phone to check the time when she saw movement on the roof opposite the jewelry store.

"Ah wonderful, someone finally noticed the robbers." said Artemis as she unslung her crossbow from her back prepped it to fire and loaded a trick bolt that wold release a bola on contact. Yes she could have used a normal bolt but then there was a chance she might kill whoever it was if she hit them in the wrong spot because they suddenly moved. And killing someone was one line she did not want to cross even if she was a villain. Then with practiced ease she lined up the shot on the shadow as it moved to the edge of the roof and was illuminated by the light of the street lamps.

It was Blue Beetle, hovering a few feet above the edge. Immediately her mind started working as she recalled the information that had been drilled into it back in combat training. Third hero to use the name, younger than most heroes, uses highly advanced alien armour that allow him to fly, increases his strength and generate weapons and has been known to talk to the armour as if it were alive as well as call it Paco.

Then she pulled the crossbow's trigger and sent the bola bolt hurtling at his chest. A moment later the bolt hit and the bola pinned his arms to his chest as it wrapped around him as he cried out in surprise.

"Okay where the heck did this thing come from?" Artemis heard him say as she reloaded this time with a normal bolt since she would have a better shot at him this time. Then she fired and got him right in the arm facing her before moving into the shadow of a nearby air conditioner to reload and keep out of sight.

"Wait what do you mean from the female of your species two rooftops on your left? How long have you known about her?" asked the hero aloud as Artemis heard a snap that meant he had broken out of the bola. This time she loaded up an explosive bolt and prepared to roll out of cover as his voice got closer. "Yeah well I can only focus on one thing at a time and I was busy with the guys in the jewelry store. Still you could have at least mentioned it that is what friends do you know."

A second later she rolled, scanned about for the hero, found him over the street diagonal from where she had been and fired this time hitting him dead center in the chest. He just had time to look surprised, his yellow eyes widening and arms starting to raise in defense before the bolt struck and sent him tumbling backwards through the air with a dull whump as the bolt detonated.

"Yes, wait dammit," muttered Artemis as she realized that she had knocked him towards the jewelry store. As fast as she could reloaded, another bola bolt this time, and ignored Deadshot's lesson that when in a ranged fight you should always keep moving so your opponent can't line up a shot on you. She aimed then fired before rolling again this time back behind the air conditioner as two energy bolts hit the spot where she had just been. "Crap, crap, crap."

"What another one? Are you running out of tricks already?" Blue Beetle taunted as he rose in the air, broke free of the bola and aimed the large energy blasters that had formed where his hands were at her. He talks to much thought Artemis as she loaded a normal bolt and rolled since the Blue Beetle was now high enough to negate the benefits of cover on the rooftops. But, she thought as she aimed and fired at his wings, it did make it really easy to find and aim at him.

The bolt had the desired effect as it hit the lower left wing cracking it and made him wobble in the air as she jumped up, sprinted to roof edge and leaped to the roof next to her and would let her start to lead the hero away from the store. It also had the extra benefit of throwing his aim so that a volley of energy bolts scorched the brick of the roof several yards from her.

"Hey not cool, aiming for my propulsion system like that." He said sending another volley of energy bolts at her while starting to zig zag through the air. "Let's see you hit me now!"

"You're on." said Artemis as she dodged and loaded up another explosive bolt. Back in combat training the target drones had been programed to try to distract the shooters with taunts, insults and jokes. And what the Beetle had just said was one of the things the drones frequently said.

She focused and breathed in then out as she sidestepped as bolt, aimed and fired. The explosive filled bolt flew up just as he started going left and got him in the right thigh. The result made her smile as the explosion cracked his armour and broke the lower right wing making him careen through the air and yell in frustration and fear until the wing regrew. Only for her smile to become a frown as she heard police sirens start up in the distance, a super hero fighting anything just about always resulted in the police being called, while the headset remained quiet.

"Okay we have to change tactics or something since the normal approach is not working here. You got any suggestions?" said Blue Beetle to himself as his blasters reformed into a large oval shield the same colour as his armour that completely blocked Artemis's view of him.

Good have him on the defensive thought Artemis as she loaded up an explosive bolt and fired, have to try and keep him there. The bolt hit along the edge and pushed the hero higher into the air but as the smoke cleared she saw that it hadn't done any damage to the shield. And that was a rather big problem as explosive bolts were probably her strongest weapon excluding the Molotov which she had left back at the motel.

Wait she had the Discus explosives which packed less of a punch but she could throw them in an arc and curve around the shield. Slinging the crossbow across her back Artemis reached into the pouch containing them and drew two of the CD sized discs that had a razor sharp edge on them. Then she sprinted and jumped to the next roof over and threw them one after the other at the hero.

The discs seemed to move so slowly compared to the crossbow bolts as they spun towards him. The first didn't curve enough and clipped the edge of the shield before exploding. The second did better and made it behind the shield where it hit something and went off.

"Fine that let's go with that, beats getting blown up trying to consider every option," Said Blue Beetle as the right half of the shield reformed into a short barrelled cannon with mesh covering the muzzle while the left half became a smaller oval shield. "Eat sound whoever you are!"

Artemis just managed to dodge backwards as the cannon made a high pitched wail that set her teeth on edge then the sound waves hit where she just been and kicked up a small cloud of dust. Artemis cough from the dust and started moving across the roof drawing more Discus's as she went. Blue Beetle fired again and again Artemis just managed to get out of the way before the shot hit.

Artemis made her way to edge of the roof and leapt to the next. Then as soon as she landed spun and threw four Discuses before dodging another shot of the sonic cannon. This was not good thought Artemis as she looked over her shoulder to watch as the Blue Beetle dodged to left so that half of the Discuses flew by into empty space and blocked the other two with his shield leaving him unharmed by the explosions. And to make matters worse she couldn't even hear how close the police were because the cannon made too much noise.

Then she heard a crackle of static in her ear and Fargate started talking. Artemis almost stopped in surprise and paid for it as the Blue Beetle immediately took advantage of her stopping and fired. The result reminded her of when Giganta had backhanded her during the lesson on fighting giant opponents.

She tumbled and bounced along the roof until she hit an air conditioner with a thump. The world seemed too bright and spun around her as her ears rung and her body ached where the shot and brick rooftop made contact with her. She barely made out the last of what Fargate was saying as, more by reflex and instinct, she stood up and drew more Discuses.

"G… ev…., le… no…, p…ce get… c…se. Cl…r, l….ve."

Artemis tried to understand what he had said but her brain felt scrambled and light headed. She hurled them at Blue Beetle and started to run as the cannon prepared to fire. She just made to the edge of the roof when she tripped and suddenly found herself falling over the edge and into the alley below. Her reflexes kicked in once again and she managed to kick off against the building wall to flip herself over so that she landed hard on her feet instead of on her head.

Standing up from the crouch she had landed in Artemis was just about to start running when she heard someone shout at her from over. She looked up to Blue Beetle hovering directly above her and she chided herself at somehow forgetting that she was still fighting him.

"I said hands where I can see them." Yelled Blue Beetle and Artemis complied knowing there was no way she could escape from him now. As she thought that though Artemis immediately felt like she was forgetting something, something from one of her Strategy and Scheming classes involving the Riddler.

"Oh wow, umm sorry you're actually the first villain to do that instead of trying to attack me. So I guess there's no need for shock blasters," commented Blue Beetle as he floated down with the mentioned shock blasters where the cannon and shield had been. The blasters looked rather strange, resembling the sonic cannon but much wider and had three long even spaced metal rods coming out of it with electrical discharges jumping from rod to rod. As he landed in front of Artemis he looked down at the blasters with annoyed look. "I said there was no need for shock blasters."

The blasters reformed into hands and Artemis noticed he sounded frustrated as he mumbled something quietly to himself. He started arguing about Fargate and his group robbing the jewelry store and how he had completely forgot about them and then had a conversation with himself about how he should have reminded himself about them. Reminded, the word stuck with her as she frowned in confusion at Blue Beetle, his antics, and the word reminded. Reminded, reminded what was she supposed to be reminded about that was bugging her?

Then hit her as she noticed the police sirens getting close. Escape. That was what it was, escape or in this case a way to escape. The Riddler had told them they always needed a backup plan to help them escape if they were ever cornered. And her plan was that she had rigged an electrical substation with explosives so that she could tell a super hero or the police which one it was so that she could escape.

"How fast can you fly?" asked Artemis doing her best keep how tired and sore she felt from showing in her voice.

"Huh?" was his response as he gave her a questioning look.

"I asked how fast can you fly. I wanted to know so that I can figure out if you could reach the bombs I planted if you left right now." She stated as police sirens continued to get closer. That got his attention however, mentioning any kind of bomb usually did with heroes.

Blue Beetle frowned and his yellow eyes narrowed. "How do I know you're not lying? You are a villain after all. Plus that is not exactly an original threat you know. Ooooh I've got a secret hidden weapon you know. And I'll activate now so that you have to stop so I can escape."

"Yeah well I'm not lying. And there isn't much I can do to prove it either," said Artemis starting a breathing exercise as a wave of vertigo washed over her. "I can tell you that it's already active though and on a timer. But even if you have heard this threat before and who knows how many other times, the question is can you take that risk?"

Blue Beetle looked her in the eyes a moment later and she did her best to hold it despite the lingering vertigo and sudden surge of nausea. How long they stared Artemis couldn't say but in the end Blue Beetle looked away and his shoulders slumped just a little bit. She felt adrenaline and relief rush through her. Of course there were still the police but she was sure she could handle them.

"Fast I'm not sure how fast exactly, but I can fly very fast if I need to," said Blue Beetle a hint of desperation in his voice. It actually made her feel bad that she had to threaten civilians to get away. But she was not about to go to jail even if they weren't actually in any danger. Or they were but not for almost an entire day, she had set the timers really high so that she could go deactivate them herself after the job if she didn't have to use them. "Now please, tell me where the bombs are."

"Someplace quite far away but I won't tell you which one unless you let me go."

For a moment he was torn then he nodded and sighed. "Fine, just please tell where they are."

Artemis took a pair of smoke bombs out of her belt and slowly started backing down the alley. Once she reached the end she threw them on the ground and shouted the location before turning and running to Fargate's safe house.

Two hours later she arrived back at the hotel she was staying at for job and collapsed onto the bed. Finally she was done. She had made it to the safe house without passing out or having to fight any police. Got the rest of her payment and had it deposited into her account.

And tomorrow she would head back to the motel and maybe see a doctor about her injuries. But that was for tomorrow. At that moment all she wanted to do was sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

April 20

The day after the job Artemis woke to find that everyone was talking about the fight between Blue Beetle and the unknown female villain with almost no one even mentioning of the jewelry store robbery. Even the doctor at the hospital Artemis decided to visit to get her injuries checked out had commented on it after diagnosing her. And she had to admit she felt a strange mix of amusement and discomfort at all the people talking about her, albeit unknowingly.

Amusing because of all the theories people were coming up with concerning who she was and why she had fought Blue Beetle. They wondered what her name, Artemis hadn't seen a reason to say it during the fight, if she was part of a some new villain organization or plot, if she was even human or instead an alien or ghost, because of how she had somehow gotten away from Blue Beetle, or a robot designed to fight and record hero fighting styles and other even more crazy ideas. It all made she smile at the things people could make up to fill in what they didn't know. But Artemis still found it discomforting simply because all those people were talking about her.

And being the center of things was something of a first for Artemis. Just about all of her life she had been average or slightly above it, at least in school and her villain classes, Artemis had only ever tried hard enough so that she wouldn't fail and have to repeat something. The most people to have ever really talked about her at once had been her friends from Jean Masque and that had been at the birthday parties they had thrown her.

What was more was that the way people were talking about the fight it was like she had actually posed a threat to Blue Beetle. That Artemis knew was a complete load of crap. She had gotten lucky, managing to surprise him and keep him off balance only because he hadn't been really trying at the start of the fight. But once he had she had messed by not adapting, which she should have been able to since she knew about a good deal of information about him and had even been taught how to counter sonic weaponry.

Still reviewing the fight and what she could have done better or differently kept her mind occupied as she headed back the motel on her motorcycle. And the ride ended up taking longer than the trip to meet Fargate when it started raining.

A few hours later Artemis finally arrived at the motel. It's good to be home thought Artemis as put her bike away and grabbed the mail before heading down to the lair.

"There sure is a lot of it today." said Artemis to herself as she set the sizable pile down on a table and put the rest of her things away.

Returning to the pile with a drink she going through it and was surprised to find that most of it was from other villains. One was from her parents explaining they would both be gone for a while. Which Artemis knew from experience could mean several weeks to several months or longer if they got arrested. It explained her dad had teamed up with Fun Haus to attempt a scheme involving androids disguised as professional athletes while her mom was in Vegas for a casino heist. A good number of them congratulated her on fighting and escaping from Blue Beetle with several also offering her jobs similar to Fargate's. Others were asking if she wanted to team up for robbery or some other scheme. And a few inquired if she was open to joining their team as a full time member. One of those was even from Fargate offering her the position of 10 or Jack in the new Royal Flush Gang he had formed with his wife, he also explained the reason for the jewelry store robbery had been to get her a suitable wedding present.

Artemis's response to them all was to dump them in the miniature incinerator that looked like an ordinary garbage bin and activate it to discreetly and safely make sure no one else could get their hands on the letters. Then she called up an information broker and told him to spread it around that she wasn't accepting any kind of job or team up for a while. Artemis guessed it would take maybe fifteen minutes before every other broker knew what she had said and repeated to anyone interested in her at the moment. After all information travelled very quickly through the world, her fight with Blue Beetle was a great example, and especially the villain world where knowing who was doing what and what superheroes were where made their robberies and schemes possible.

"Now what to do?" wondered Artemis aloud as she finished her drink. Truthfully she didn't really want to do anything. Her body still ached where it had connected with the roof top and she felt tired despite managing to get a decent sleep after the job. The doctor had recommended she should try to relax and avoid any strenuous activity so that left exercising or practising with her equipment out of the question.

A movie might be nice thought Artemis as she remembered a number of billboards that had been advertising them. And not thinking of any reason not since she now had plenty of money and time to waste, there was still half a week before the villain convention. So Artemis changed into some more casual and comfortable clothing then jumped on her motorcycle.

It didn't take her long to get to the nearest theater, buy a ticket for some comedy about an inept gangster, a snack and a good seat. The theater itself was fairly empty with only a few other people. Which Artemis liked so that there was less chance of someone disrupting the movie. All she wanted to do was laugh and relax.

A few minutes later the lights dimmed and went out while the screen was lite up as the projector started up. Artemis hadn't been to many movies, most of them she had seen with her parents on the family vacation several years ago, but something seemed off to her as the commercials played. What exactly she couldn't put her finger on but her instincts, that had been developed back in combat training against opponents like Deathstroke, Deadshot, Bane, Major Force and other dangerous supervillains, told her something was going on.

Then she figured it out, or more correctly heard it, in the brief quiet pause between commercials. A faint hissing noise coming from above and Artemis immediately looked up to see a faint misty cloud descending through the light of the projector. It was then she also noticed just how sluggish and heavy her body now felt. It felt like she was back in training and it was endurance week when everyone had to wear weights all over their bodies while still doing normal workout sessions like Bane's two hour strength training or Deathstroke's self defense classes.

"I will not give up." muttered Artemis as she started one of Deathstroke's breathing exercises for situations just like this and forced herself to stand up. It took a few seconds for her to steady herself after standing up before turning and then taking slow measured steps towards the exit at the back of the theater.

I will not fail thought Artemis as she ignored the panicked yells and screams of the few other people still conscious as they finally noticed the gas's effects or the unconscious people around them. Failure back in training meant having to do it all over again which was bad but not lethal. Here in the theater however it potentially was and Artemis did as she had been taught for situations like this by using her fear and stress to help strengthen her.

Artemis steadied herself on the last chair of the row for a moment as she noticed the commercials had finished. Normally now movie previews would had started to play but instead of the deep booming voice over of the previews was replaced by two voices laughing. One was a high pitched whiny voice and the other a gravelly sinister sounding voice. Artemis turned to see two faces seemingly looking out and down from the screen at the theater.

"Ah hell." said Artemis as she recognized the two. One was Toyman a glasses wearing slightly overweight middle age man with orange brown combed back hair and owner of the whiny voice. And the other was Psycho-Pirate, a man wearing a red and black hood that left his face exposed and owner of the sinister voice. Normally both, or at least Toyman who was generally a fairly nice guy at least as far as other villains went and definitely compared to Psycho-Pirate who was some kind of emotional vampire, would likely have let her or any other villain caught in their trap go. But as Artemis looked around she guessed that this trap was probably completely automated with no way of communicating with the two.

Meaning she was going to have to get herself out of this trap as she saw that everyone else had been knocked out by the gas. So turning towards the exit she started walking again along the faintly lite and sloped aisle.

Step by painfully slow step she made her way closer to the exit. How long had passed she didn't know but it felt like hours as she continued to force her legs that felt like they were made of lead to move. She was just a little bit from the doors when the unthinkable happened and the tip of her foot caught on the floor as she took a step forward. And then with a pang of despair in her chest she felt her already shaky stability give way.

As Artemis fell the despair seemed to grow and expand to fill her entire body and for a moment she broke the breathing exercise and gasped. That she sealed her fate as she landed on the floor. Vainly she tried to more her arms then any part of her body but got zero response. And after a few more breaths later Artemis's eyes closed and fell again, this time in darkness.


	5. Chapter 5

April ?

Artemis had never felt so relaxed or peaceful as she slowly drifted down through clear blue water that stretched further in every direction than she could see. Rays of light sparkled around her revealing strange images that appeared and disappeared everywhere she looked. Giant sized faces, pictures of people surrounded by writing, balls of letters and phones and patches of swirling color. Not that Artemis cared as she looked around at the images, not sure what to make of them or at her being under water without having to breathe.

After all why should she, thought Artemis as she marveled at the images and the sparkling light. She felt wonderful while most other times she felt constantly stressed or worried about her all the things happening in her life. Things like her parents, getting older or being a villain even though she had never wanted to even be one. And now to be free of it all Artemis could only sigh in pleasure at how good it felt.

How long Artemis continued to drift through the water and watch the images around she didn't know or care. But as she did so she felt the odd and troubling sensation of being watched. Slowly it built up like an itch that once noticed seemed to grow in intensity until it felt unbearable. Ignoring it or trying to reassure herself that she was alone did nothing to get rid of it. Even looking around her in every direction, except down as for some reason she didn't want to, to prove no one else was around did nothing and now the feeling had reached that unbearable point.

"Fine I'll look." grumbled Artemis to herself just wanting to peaceful bliss of drifting though the water.

She knew was going to have to look down to prove to herself that she wasn't being watched but quickly found it far more difficult than it should have been to do so. Trying to turn her neck in any direction that would let her look down was impossible as it seemed to stiffen up every time she tried. Her waist and back were the same story. And trying to move her arms and legs to spin herself around was frustratingly hard as they barely responded as she tried to move.

And after several tries that only resulted in her rotating slightly back and forth to either side she gave up hoping that she it go away if she ignored it for long enough. But unlike an itch it did not and the peaceful sensation refused to fully return while troubling feeling of being watched remained and continued to increase. So just wanting to get rid of it Artemis focused on moving her limbs and slowly began to spin herself around to what was down below her.

Again with no way to tell time or get her body to work faster it seemed to take forever. In the meantime she guessed at what was below her. Maybe sand, rocks or plants she thought, or even some combination of two or three. Or mud possibly thought Artemis as she slowly and carefully made paddling motions with her arms and legs so she wouldn't accidentally cancel the motion she was generating out.

As did so though a new sensation began to grow in her mind. It was a feeling of dread and it said that maybe she didn't want to know what was below her. That perhaps even only feeling partially peaceful and relaxed was better than nothing. For a moment she paused before deciding that she wanted the full feeling or nothing at all.

That was the kind of person she was when it came to something she wanted. She didn't like to compromise when she didn't see a reason for it. And this was exactly one of those situations. Besides thought Artemis all she had to do was take a quick look to confirm she wasn't being watched then the troubling feeling would be gone and she could return to relaxing.

Then with one final paddle of her hands Artemis found herself looking down. For a moment she even agreed with the dread that perhaps she really hadn't wanted to find out what was below.

"What the….?" Was all that Artemis could manage as she stared down into a swirling vortex of long thin shiny silver lines. She had no clue what she was looking at but as she stared and looked closer she could make out fins and tails on the lines besides meaning that they were some kind of fish and that something was moving in the dark center of the vortex of fish..

Then just as the dread started to scream at her to look away and suddenly Artemis felt her neck, and in fact the whole rest of her body, unstiffen in an instant. However at that moment some other part of told her that it was too late to look away even as the dread continued to scream as the vortex of fish rippled outwards causing the center to widened.

And once it was wide enough that Artemis could now longer see any fish the darkness split horizontally into two halves that opened in an instant to reveal a massive bright white light. As she blinked though Artemis found that she was lying on her back and could no longer move her head or any part of her body.

After several long moments of rapid blinking to get her eyes used to the light she looked around as best she could and gaped at what she saw. A large plate sized light shone at her while long shiny silver multi jointed robotic arms moved around the edges of her field of vision. And she could just make out that there were straps all across her body.

She tried to yell or cry out as the memories of the theater came rushing back to her only to have a faint gurgle come out instead. She tried moving but the straps were too tight and all she could do was shift and strain vainly against them.

A wave of panic washed over her and Artemis felt hot tears form in the corners of her eyes. How could she happen to her? She thought as she also wished that she had never woken up. She was about to start blaming things when she found herself taking several deep breaths and started repeating Ultra-Humanite's parts of a successful plan. And a few seconds later the she had pushed the panic back just in time for a shadow to fall across her eyes.

"I thought felt someone wake," said a low gravelly voice that Artemis recognized from the theater as Psycho-Pirate. And a sinister undertone entered his voice as he continued talking. "Such a pity. Now you'll have to go through the rest of the operation awake. Oh and don't worry about trying to talk or yell the knockout gas that we used has a particular effect on the voice box."

Artemis watched as he stepped to her right side and leaned over slightly to look her in the eyes. Artemis didn't meet his eyes. Instead she looked him over to see if he had anything on him that would help her escape and was close enough for her to grab. Unfortunately he was only wearing his usual red and black outfit that had nothing useful on it and briefly she wished he had been more true to the pirate part of his name.

"Hmm such an interesting play of emotions from you just now," commented Psycho-Pirate as he smiled down at her. "Hope, determination, disappointment and irritation. I wonder what you were thinking to inspire such feelings."

"Still as curious as I am about them let's direct our attention at more interesting ones shall we? Like in this case the ones you're currently holding back right now hmm?" he said as he raised a hand in front of her eyes. Artemis watched as a red glow appeared around it and in an instant her self-control vanished as emotions boiled up inside her.

"Oh my, that's quite the dam you've got built. To think there would be so much to hold back some in someone your age. Let's have taste then," said Psycho-Pirate giving her a wicked grin. Artemis's response was simply to glare back at him and struggle against straps as her mind filled with all the ways she could hurt him once she got free. Meanwhile he continued to talk about her emotions like he was a connoisseur sipping wine. "Most prominent is anger but then isn't it always? My favorite feeling to feed on and I must say yours has a wonderfully refined sense to it. Normally I find that in people much older than you and even then only in the disciplined ones as most people simply let their anger flow unbridled."

"A touch of hatred, to be expected, after all nobody likes being kidnapped and restrained. Not my a preferred choice since it has such a bitter aftertaste. Disappointment and self-loathing hmm, I wonder why you would feel that? Still their decent enough though a little watered down. Surprisingly little panic or stress, I would have anticipated more. I don't mind though, both are rather bland. Some fear, but again not as much as expected. Fine with me however too much of it and it overpowers everything else," No, no more of this thought Artemis as she breathed and repeated the four parts of successful plan. She was not going to give him what he wanted and bit by bit she forced herself to calm down. Then she started the meditation technique the Terrible Trio had taught them when they had visited as guest instructors at combat training. She couldn't see while doing it since she had to close her eyes but she could still hear although everything sounded much quieter than normal but more importantly let her push away all emotion leaving Psycho-Pirate nothing to feed on. "What's this? How interesting that you can supress your emotions. But I doubt that you will be able to once Toyman has finishes turning you into action figures and I attach my emotion amplifiers to you all. Then you'll do whatever we tell you to do."

Artemis listened as he walked away and just made out a door shutting before stopping meditating. She took several deep breaths as she ran what Psycho-Pirate had told her over in her head. She and the over people from the theater were being turned into action figures by Toyman. How exactly Artemis couldn't even begin to imagine but that was obviously what the robot arms were doing. And then they would be mind controlled, or emotion controlled maybe since it was Psycho-Pirate, probably to commit crimes or help the two with some bigger scheme.

Just awesome thought Artemis as she tried and failed to think of a way out of this situation. She had no idea what to do.

She heard a door open and tensed, ready to start meditating if it was Psycho-Pirate again. She waited trying to look in the direction of the sound had come from when she heard footsteps and an accented male voice. "Finally geeesh, thought that guy was never gonna leave. So think you're up to helping me rescue the others?"


	6. Chapter 6

April ?

Artemis felt very confused as she kept her eyes closed and remained still in case this was some kind of trick by Psycho-Pirate to break her concentration. She readied herself to start meditating again while she listened for any more talking and resisted the urge to flinch the shadow fell across her eyes.

"Hey you there? Blink or something would you." asked the male voice sounding surprisingly close to her. "Dammit, I could have sworn they didn't add the control devices until last."

In her head Artemis debated whether she should open her eyes to see who was apparently trying to help her. On one hand it might be her only chance to escape but on the other if it was a trick to make her lose her concentration the result was not going to be pleasant for her. It was a tough choice and one that she had been forced to make in similar circumstances in combat training and villain classes alike.

She felt torn as she continued to lie there motionless. Unable to pick one she dearly wished she had listened more about psychic combat and to defend against it. Then the moment seemed to pass as the shadow moved from her eyes and she heard footsteps on her right get farther away. A moment later her indecision was replaced by her earlier confusion once the voice started talking again. "Okay let's see I flip this and press this to stop the arms. Then this and this to release the straps. Ugh this isn't gonna be fun trying to move them all by myself."

Artemis's confusion vanished though once she felt the straps loosen and then slide away freeing her. The only thought her in mind was that this was her chance to escape and she had to take it. Immediately she sat up and quickly looked around to see where she was.

She was in a large high roofed room with sheet metal walls. All around her were tables covered in a variety of objects ranging from wiring and servos to clothing material and plastic containers. And a few feet past the tables to her left were some of the people from the theater, all unconscious as they lay on a blanket on the floor. Unfortunately though just she spotted a door on the wall behind her Artemis found her vision filled with flashing lights and a wave of nausea rushed through her.

Wonderful thought she as relaxed and remained still as she waited for the feeling to pass. Because while she did want to escape as soon as possible from where ever she was puking would definitely not help her do that. However as she waited she looked at herself and suddenly forgot about escaping or feeling like she was going to throw up.

A gasp of surprise and disbelief left her lips as she saw that she was no longer wearing the shirt and jeans she had worn to the theater. Now she was wearing a black with purple strips down the side spandex bodysuit that covered her entire body except for past her elbows and the space between her shoulders from the base of her neck down to the small of her back. Artemis also found that her hair had been cut in a short pixie style as she noticed her hair no longer touched her shoulders. She let out an angry hissing rasp as a few seconds later as she swore and then another as she noticed the glint of metal on her forearms and in the space on her back. Looking more closely Artemis discovered several inch long pieces of metal in both places. She didn`t have time to think more about them or escaping when the male voice started talking again.

"Hah, so you are awake," Artemis located the owner of the voice standing beside a large machine that all the robot arms were attached to and now hung limp from. The owner was a man in a dirty trench coat and fedora with a large squashed looking nose and messy light brown beard. "Okay so listen up and listen good. I've got a lot to tell you and not a lot of time to do it, got it?"

Artemis nodded and the man continued. "Good, now first up I'm a superhero. Name's Deadman and my special power happen's to be that I'm a ghost who can possess people, like this guy," explained the supposedly possessed henchman as he gestured at himself. Artemis made seem like she was surprised at the statement while she raked her mind for any information on a superhero named Deadman. "Now mac, I know I might not sound very reassuring but you gonna have to believe me if you want to get out of here. In a little bit some superheroes are going to get here to take down the people who did this to you. While their doing that though, I need your help get the other people from the theater safely out of here so they don't get hurt during the fighting, okay?"

Artemis was about to nod again when the man smacked himself on the forehead before turning and grabbing something from behind the robot arm machine. "Sorry mac, should have done this sooner. It'll make communicating a lot easier. Here," Then he tossed a small plastic cylinder at her that she barely managed catch. "That'll undo whatever the gas did to your voice so you can talk again. You just pull the tab on the end and breathe it in."

She did as he said and immediately felt a warm tingling sensation in her chest. "Umm, thanks." croaked Artemis, her voice sounding hoarse and scratchy like she had a sore throat.

"So what now?" asked Artemis setting the cylinder beside her before slowly getting off the, now that she could see it properly, stainless steel platform. She did her best to make her tone sound as honest as possible as she remembered the information on Deadman. The file that had been presented in class was small as the superhero had only been positively identified once by Gentleman Ghost during his attempt at killing Batman and conquering London with an army of ghosts.

Inwardly Artemis sighed because while she really did want to go find Psycho-Pirate or Toyman, though she would prefer Psycho-Pirate, and hurt them badly or try to escape she didn't want to give away any kind of hint she wasn't just a normal person caught in a supervillain scheme to a superhero no matter how obscure or unknown he was. After all superheroes tended to have pretty good memories and liked to talk about people they had encountered with other heroes. Plus Artemis also wasn't confident that she was even able to fight or escape in the condition she was in, especially since just sitting up had almost made she throw up. How long she had been out, if she had any pain killers in her or how the implants in her arms and back might affect if she didn't know and didn't really want to find out. And since she didn't want to take that chance when confronting one of them or trying to escape the best thing she could do was play along with the superhero.

"Well right now I need you to give me a hand moving everybody on to these," said the superhero pointing to two large metal carts filled with a mixture miniature spare machine parts and plastic molds along the far wall past the robot arm machine. "Once we get them cleared off first."

Artemis nodded and walked over, making sure to take careful steps, as the henchman started on the furthest cart. Caution that turned out to be well founded as once she started walking Artemis quickly found her body moving rather stiffly and that she had to concentrate on keeping her balance with each step she took. Probably painkillers she thought to herself as she knelt next to the cart and started scooping up armfuls of parts then depositing them on the ground. She tried her best not to make too much noise as she did in case someone passed by the room heard and looked inside.

"Yeah know I was kinda betting on you waking up if anyone was. I mean you almost made to the back of the theater, and that has to take some serious determination from the way everyone else was dropping like flies from the gas," said Deadman casually while he continued working. "And before you ask mac, yeah I was there in the theater. And actually you guys are all pretty lucky that I was, otherwise no one would be coming to rescue you or even know that you had been snatched."

Artemis felt a cold shiver run down her spine as she thought about if he hadn't been there. Toyman and Psycho-Pirate would have succeeded in turning her into an action figure and she would have been totally under their control to do with as they pleased. It was quiet for a few seconds before Deadman started talking again his tone apologetic now and Artemis immediately recognized the smile now on his face to be forced. "Sorry about that I have a bit of tendency to call things like I see'em. I mean I'm sure someone would have noticed you all were missing like your parents or friends. Anyway then, let's get these ready to go for when the heroes show up."

It was quiet again except for the slight jingling sound of metal on concrete as they worked. Artemis put herself into automatic mode, another skill iced up from combat training where she performed whatever tasks she had to do in short robot like movements, as she tried to force Deadman's words from her mind. For whatever reason however they just kept repeating themselves and she found a response to them forming as well.

Actually no, they wouldn't have, why? Well, because her parents were always too busy and her only friends hadn't seen or heard from her since graduation. Honestly, thought Artemis it reminded her of when she was eleven. She had just finished up everything for the year and had been dropped off at home only to find no one was there. She ended up being let into the house by a neighbour. And then when her parents had finally arrived home two whole days later they had been surprised to see her.

Artemis jerked herself from her thoughts as she realized that her cart was empty and she was grasping at air. She looked over at Deadman and saw he almost done as well. He noticed and smiled back heras he craned his neck to see how she was doing. "Well you continue to impress there mac. You're quite the industrious worker. Kay so for now just wheel your cart over near the others."

She did as he said and looked over the other people from the theater while she waited. The four people looked so peaceful as they laid there and for a moment Artemis wished she hadn't woken up. They were still wearing the clothes from the theater instead some weird costume like her so she guessed that was part of the 'operation' Psycho-Pirate had talked about that would turn them into action figures. Briefly she wondered what kind of action figure she was supposed to be but quickly gave up since she had almost no knowledge of toys besides the simple ones from when she was very young.

"Alright I ready to go so just let me get my cart over there then we'll start moving them." said Deadman bringing her back to reality as he started walking over.

She nodded to him and turned to look back at the others when she noticed movement in the top of her field of vision. Looking up she saw it was a shadow under the door and just opened her mouth to tell Deadman when the handle turned. The click of the handle seemed impossibly loud and out of the corner of her eye Artemis saw that Deadman had heard it too and stopped to watch as the door swung open.

For an instant dread clutched at her heart as Artemis thought it might be Psycho-Pirate come to check on her and who she had no chance of fighting in the condition she was. Then it was gone when she blinked and saw it was a slightly a large stocky man in slacks, suspenders and a worn looking shirt. Her mind instinctively started going over her options to try to take the man down while she felt herself unconsciously shift into a fighting stance. Artemis had no clue if she could take the henchman but she knew she was going to try if she wanted stop him from sounding the alarm.

One thing going in her favour though was that the man clearly wasn't very fast on the up take as he continued to stare confused at her as if he couldn't understand how she was standing there. Despite this Artemis swore in her head at her bad luck. All she wanted to do was go along with Deadman's plan to get escape the villains, get whatever Toyman had put in her removed and then get back to her lair to prepare for the convention, that was if it hadn't already gone by while she was out of it.

So with that in mind Artemis started to move forward to get in striking range of the henchman unsure if she could even throw a proper punch. That was at least until the building shook.


End file.
